


Best for You.

by KatherineBly



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Flashbacks, Little bits of my own arranged marriage are dripped in btw, Other, Past Underage, The Reids are bad parents in this one sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28925259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatherineBly/pseuds/KatherineBly
Summary: Now, when I say 'response', hear me out.At some point, on ao3, there was a fic about the arranged marriage of Darcy Reid and Katherine Plumber-Pulitzer by MoonlitGraffiti, however there only seems to have ever been one in the first place. I would REALLY like to check with the author that they're okay with this by the way!The text between the first and second '♤♤♤♤' is a flashback, this goes for every chapter.Please be nice in the comments should you choose to leave any, I think (key word, think) this shall be updated once a week at around the turn of Friday to Saturday, and, on with the show!
Relationships: Jack Kelly/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, Katherine Plumber Pulitzer & Darcy Reid
Kudos: 4





	1. Crying

**Author's Note:**

> Now, when I say 'response', hear me out.  
> At some point, on ao3, there was a fic about the arranged marriage of Darcy Reid and Katherine Plumber-Pulitzer by MoonlitGraffiti, however there only seems to have ever been one in the first place. I would REALLY like to check with the author that they're okay with this by the way!  
> The text between the first and second '♤♤♤♤' is a flashback, this goes for every chapter.
> 
> Please be nice in the comments should you choose to leave any, I think (key word, think) this shall be updated once a week at around the turn of Friday to Saturday, and, on with the show!

Darcy, for G_d's sake, cufflinks!"  
"Katherine already knows about the.."  
"And her father doesn't, go!"

Katherine knew.  
Katherine always knew.

♤♤♤♤

"Darcy?"  
Another sleepless night for the young insomniac, and therefore another late night for his best friends.  
"Heya, Katherine. Where's Bill?"  
"He's coming… Were you crying?"  
"No! I don't cry, you know that."  
"It's better to cry when you're hurt, my mother told me so."  
Darcy hadn't refrained from private crying since then.  
The young Pulitzer, just half a year younger than the Reid himself, clambered up onto the bed on his left side, discarding a pillow what Darcy had already moved aside, much to the young Reid's annoyance.  
"Katherine! You always make my room so messy whenever you come in here."  
But Katherine hugged him and the Reid hissed, so the conversation was changed.  
"Darc'? What's wrong?" She asked, her voice suddenly very small, none of her usual confidence shining through.  
"I'm too tired to speak in English now, leave me alone."  
"But you have insomnia, you can't be tired."  
"I so can!"  
"Well go to sleep, then!" Katherine picked up and gently thumped him with the previously discarded pillow, only for it to be removed from her hands and placed on his right side where the young Hearst was climbing up onto the bed. "Bill, he won't play."  
"I don't want to, make her leave me alone." Darcy lay down, head lower than the pillow and head resting on his arms.  
"What's going on?" Bill asked, not being offered so much as a greeting.  
"Darcy won't play and he was crying but he won't tell me why." Katherine complained, pouting.  
"Be quiet, they'll hear us downstairs and punish us all."  
"...what's that?"

Bill lay down next to Darcy, head on his arms in just the same position, minus his facing the Reid.  
"Punishment is when you do something wrong and you get just what you deserve." Darcy explained, voice not even slurring.  
"How do people know you've done something wrong?" Katherine asked, bewildered.  
"They just do. Anyway, you do something wrong and you get what you deserve, and that's called punishment."  
"Oh. So like not being given dessert?"  
"No, Katherine, it's meant to hurt."  
"Not having dessert does hurt, it makes my mouth taste like fish." Darcy sighed audibly and Katherine hugged him in response, finding long, white strips of sterilised fabric near his waist.

"Darcy?" Bill began, already hugging the Reid, but a great deal more tired. "Did you get a tummy ache?"  
"..my Father said not to tell anyone…"  
"We won't say anything at all, Darc', me and Bill are good at keeping secrets."  
"Well… Bill is, but you're not, Katherine, you tell everyone everything."  
"Darcy?" Bill yawned, jaw opening a deal and eyes slowly closing. "We can keep a secret. And even if Katherine doesn't then we'll have to cut her head off like the king of France."

The young Reid sat up again, pulling the bandages down to reveal a new wound, hardly short of gaping and eliciting a gasp from both young Hearst and young Pulitzer.

♤♤♤♤

"Darcy!" WhiteLaw Reid hissed at his son, slapping him sharply as the carriage pulled up to the Pulitzer's house, bringing him back and away from his thoughts.  
"I'm sorry Sir, I was thinking.."  
"Well it had better have been about how you're going to persuade Miss Pulitzer into wedding you."  
"I thought it was arranged… And her name is Plumber now."  
"It's Plumbser when she's at work, and if you can only get this right then your life won't turn into a living hell and she won't have to use it anymore." Was the only snappy reply Darcy got, eyes lowering and nodding silently.


	2. Horses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I thought someone would come and beat me with a virtual Croquet mallet, but you people are actually lovely! 
> 
> Alright, notes for this chapter...  
> -Pulitzer was Hungarian, right?  
> -Okay Katherine knows Hungarian then.  
> -Imma headcannon that Darcy is Russian because his family was moving around when he was born so English was like language No. 3  
> -He is a bit of a languages genius I guess  
> -Bill... Bill. Honestly I don't know what to say about him. I don't think he's really that important to the story.  
> -That being said I don't write this regularly, it just happens.  
> -Child abuse tw I suppose  
> -aaaaaaaaaand I hope you like it!

Itwas the knock at the door what distracted Katherine from work that day. The reason she'd been asked to write at home, evidently.  
It was when she realised that Darcy was there that she smiled.  
It was when she realised that Darcy's father was there that her smile dissolved entirely.

♤♤♤♤

"Darcy Darcy Dar-cy Da-rcy Darcy…" Katherine came into his room singing this evening, happy her friend was back.  
"So then merriment had to go to the horse hosp-" Bill was already telling Darcy about everything he'd done whilst the Reid, now eight and a few months older than his friends, everything he'd done whilst Darcy was away in France, both sat wide-eyed on the bed. Well, everything that had happened since the last (very extensive) letter sent two weeks ago.  
"Hi Kath." Darcy began shortly before returning to Bill's story.  
"-and she's still there because she broke her leg and apparently she might not ever be able to run again, and if she can't run then she might die."

Darcy, on one hand, had already been told the brutal truth that a horse with a broken leg was often put out of use and then put down.  
Bill, on the other hand, probably didn't want to know such a thing, and therefore Darcy had chosen not to tell him.

"Daddy says I have to learn French so I can go to school in France."  
"France is nice, everything sounds better."  
"It's less loud?"  
"Yes, but people are more fashionable and they speak is much more nicer."  
"Much more nicely." Bill corrected, the only full English speaker amongst them so far.  
"What?"  
"The phrase is that they speak much more nicely." Bill explained in correction, still pleasant, voice not raising or angering.  
"Yes, that. Kathy?" Darcy looked over to Katherine, who was now singing quietly to herself in Hungarian and playing with her hem.  
"Darc'?" She returned, looking up.  
"I want to go to school in France with you."  
"Why? I want to stay here with you and Bill. Anyway, you can't, it's a special school, only for girls. Maybe you should pretend to be a girl and go instead of me." Katherine sighed, lying back on the bed and Darcy pulling her skirt back down over her drawers.  
"Why do you want to go back to France anyway?"  
"Because when I'm in France, my father doesn't seem to think to hit me with his belt."  
"...what?!"


	3. Letters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soooooo Jack doesn't turn up in this one, but he's definitely mentioned!  
> I get the feel Jack is okay with him but I mean... Katherine is going to marry Darcy. How happy could Jack possibly be?  
> I think I already said it but the whole arranged marriage thing is based on my own experience, please be nice if you are going to stick around!

Darcy, what's going on?" Katherine asked as soon as they had two minutes alone together after dinner was over, neither of them having eaten much and pinkie fingers linked the whole time, listening to their fathers and Katherine's mother talk.  
"They… I'm supposed to ask you if you'll marry me."  
"What?!"  
"I know, I know, but… Kathy, would it really be so bad? I know you aren't attracted to me, and I'm not attracted to you, but.. Come, if you agree to this then we could both court who we liked, you that Kelly boy you've been talking about quite a bit more than a tad and for me… Maybe no-one." He opted, and he could see Katherine was thinking about it.  
"It would be nice to be able to keep seeing Jack and stay with my family…"  
"Nobody needs to know it's a cover, right? And we're not old enough to deal with children, so when they do pressure we can hold it off for a few months and maybe you can have a child with Mr. Strike Leader and we'll call it Reid."  
"...alright."

♤♤♤♤

'Dear Kathy,' Darcy and Bill were writing another letter to Katherine in France, though she'd be back soon. "Both of our fathers have said we'll go on to marry someone like you or Lucille, but neither of us like you in that way. We both love you very dearly as the closest of friends, of course, but neither of us could love you as any more than that, so we were wondering.. Do you prefer either of us to the other? We do understand, of course, that you'd have to talk through such a thing with Lucille as well, we know you love her dearly, but we thought we'd put the choice down to you if and when it came to that [...] We await you reply quite readily,  
Dearly,  
Darcy Reid and Bill Hearst."

x X x

"Darcy!" Katherine called, entire finishing school education (if it could be called an education, as Katherine thought) dropped as soon as the housekeeper who'd come to pick her up was out of sight and earshot. "Darcy, I'm back!"  
"Katherine? Kathy!" Darcy grinned, an expression now unusually seen on his face and Katherine loved to see it.

All of his letters had been interested in how she was doing and what school was like for all of them (Katherine at finishing school in France, Darcy boarding in Germany and Bill homeschooled by his own mother, staying in New York), and he talked about politics, but he didn't seem excited or passionate anymore, and his letters were solemn now.

"I missed you so much, Darc'! I can't run in this, my footsteps are much too big.."  
Darcy hugged her back anyway, the embrace sweet, though Katherine almost sent him to the ground, the two eighteen-year-olds crashing into each other.  
"I missed you more." He promised, pulling away with her hands on his shoulders. "If you let me wash my hands then we can go to Bill's and explain everything there..?"  
"Well go on then!"

"Did you talk to Lucille about Bill and I?"  
"Yeah, she said…"  
"...Kitty? What is it?"  
"She doesn't want to marry either of you. She's engaged, Darcy. Would you be terribly upset if I said I'd rather marry Bill?"  
"…I can see why you'd want to marry him."  
"...what?"  
"What?"  
"What did you just say?"  
"...I can understand why you'd want to marry Bill, especially over me."

♤♤♤♤


	4. Bees and Doves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No flashbacks in this one, sorry! And as far as I've written, Jack doesn't actually turn up. He's mentioned, and he has his stake in it, but... I guess I struggle to write him?  
> Also I know it's like 9 hours late (not that anyone is reading this on the morning after it came out hahahahahaha), I'm sorry!  
> Updates might be bad because school and work, but thank you for coming!

"Momma?" Katherine approached her mother later that evening, pinafore-skirt removed now and her second-best skirt visible, almost shaking with pretend-excitement. "I'll marry Darcy. Now or tomorrow or any other day." She promised Mrs. Pulitzer who was, admittedly, quite taken aback at the outrightness of it.  
"Are you sure?"  
"Oh, absolutely! Darcy, dear, come in.."  
Darcy, who had been waiting just outside the door during this short encounter, smiled politely and came in, standing beside Katherine and linking their pinky fingers.

Little details were ever-important.

"Oh, you're both so young and in love… You be very careful, my dears, and your hurt will heal with time." Katherine's mother rubbed Katherine's cheek and pat Darcy's shoulder.  
"Go fowarth, young loves, and may the Lord guide you along your way…"  
Katherine and Darcy both nodded and she smiled, going back to her ordering about of the servants.  
Katherine retreated back to her work soon after and Darcy having to stay downstairs, not meant to be alone with her for long periods of time until they were wed.  
"Darcy, come here, have a seat, I'd like to speak to you. Is that alright?"  
Darcy nodded, sitting opposite her in the library and not minding her looking over him, sat smiling and only watching her do so.

He was… Actually stylish, in a way. He wasn't handsome, exactly, more… Pretty? It didn't sound right in her mind, but that was certainly the right word. His eyes forest green behind his glasses, but with dark circles beneath them and skin paler than Katherine's, high contrast shadows filling caves beneath high cheekbones.  
She wanted to make sure he ate properly, his mother had come to be so sick.

"You will look after my Katherine, won't you? You won't leave her as soon as the next pretty dove comes along?"  
"Mrs. Pulitzer, do you know the difference between bees and doves."  
"I'm sure I know many, but tell me which you refer to."  
"Well, a bee will fly from flower to flower. He collects whatever and however much pollen he can, and does not care for the flower afterwards. Doves are instead terribly romantic. They mate for life, and after death they mourn for their lost lovers until they are reunited in death. Ma'am, I don't plan to be a bee in such a relationship as marriage.  
Katherine is lovely, but she might be a dove, not a flower. Are you sure that was what you wanted to talk about?"  
"No, I… Dear, does your mother know? About you and Katherine?"  
"...I expect not, Mrs. Pulitzer. I plan to see her tomorrow morning and tell her. I know it's so selfish, but… I really do want her to come to mine and Katherine's wedding."  
"I'm sure she'd like to come. Do you think she'll…" She'll live that long. That was the end of the sentence. Darcy knew it. Mrs. Pulitzer knew it.  
"Well I don't know if you have anything to do with it, but I want to hold the ceremony soon. If Katherine's okay with it, I mean, I want my Mama to be there to see it, she always loved love and marriage and such things."  
"...we'll try, my dear."  
"Thank you." He whispered.

xXx

Their engagement was published in both the New York World and Tribune the next afternoon to allow the morning for Darcy to inform his mother, and it was quickly but not quietly decided that the family's papers would stay as entirely different entities and then that Katherine might belong to the Tribune now, seeing as Darcy already did and her brother Joseph Pulitzer Jr. was to inherit the World anyway.

It was in the morning that both Jack Kelly and Mrs. Reid were to be told, and so Katherine and Darcy went their separate ways and agreed to meet for lunch.


	5. Strawberry Pinafore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should tell you, I have literally no idea if these are all of a similar length, I'm not even joking.  
> Also next chapter is the first one with some (I don't even know what to call it) suggested/setup for some smut and... also incest, you don't have to read it as it's quite easily replaced with some other type of abuse. But now for the announcement:  
> I ACTUALLY HAVE THE START OF A PLOT.
> 
> That means this is leading somewhere and I find this very reassuring. If you came for and stayed for Jack then honestly... Time to go, I'm sorry.  
> On with the show..?

"Mama?" Darcy took his mother's hand, thumbs running careful circles into her palm, glancing up every now and then. "Are you still with us? I have something to tell you, I think you'll like it." He whispered.  
She woke up slowly, smiling when she saw him sat on the edge of the bed and sitting up, not letting him help.  
"Ogden?" She whispered, squinting a little at him. He shook his head quietly, contemplating whether he should agree or correct her.  
"No, Mama. I'm Darcy. Do you remember me any?" He asked, still whispering and not wanting to startle her.  
"I… Darcy is small. He's shorter than me, he gives hugs, you're not… Are you?"  
"I've grown, do you see? I'm taller now and I'm not allowed to touch you besides your hands incase I hurt you accidentally. Do you believe me?"  
Darcy's mother thought for a moment.  
Darcy himself tensed in waiting for her answer.  
She nodded.  
"I remember, I think. What was it you wanted to tell me?"  
"Mama… Do you remember Katherine, one of my friends when I was little?"  
"I remember her, yes. Red hair and a strawberry pinafore."

Darcy had to admit; He was a little offended that she remembered Katherine when she was five before him when he was seventeen.

"Wait, let me find her…" She turned to her left and pulled a box out of her bedside table. Photographs. Neatly stacked and tied with extravagant bows, hundreds of them.  
One pile for Ogden, one pile for Jean, and one pile for Darcy himself. She took the last one and Darcy realised immediately why she didn't recognize him.  
People had stopped taking photographs.  
Darcy's mother pulled a photograph out of the back of the yellow-bow pile, one of him and Katherine holding hands.  
"Strawberry pinafore. You see?" She placed the photograph down infront of him and he looked at it carefully. She wasn't wrong, but it was in the tiny details. Made him worry she was so lonesome.

"Yes, her. Mama, I asked her to marry me."  
There was a moment of pause where Darcy couldn't tell what was going on inside her head. And then she came out with-  
"Did she say yes?"  
Darcy almost laughed.  
"Yes, Mama, she said yes. I'm going to marry Katherine."  
"Katherine? ...wonderful, my darling, wonderful."  
"We want to have the wedding soon, Mama, because I thought you might want to come. Do you? Want to come to my wedding?"  
"Of course I do, I always wanted to. Didn't I?"  
"Yes, Mama. Would you like to go back to sleep now?"

Darcy's mother nodded and he kissed her cheek before leaving her to sleep. He then changed his tie and found a suit before leaving for lunch.


	6. Tuesdays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is where it gets dark(er)... Heh.  
> Warnings for deeply implied incest (little darcy), deep sexism.  
> In other news, Jack FINALLY gets his mention! Sorry this is late (not that anyone cares haha) and um... Also I'm pregnant so this might be over-emotional. Sorry.

"What did Jack Kelly have to say for himself today?"  
"Less than usual, actually. On the way over he said that I should be marrying him incase we're ever caught."  
"Well, he would know what being caught is like, wouldn't he?"  
"Darcy!"  
Katherine kicked him beneath the table.  
Darcy didn't even flinch.

♤♤♤♤  
“Darcy, come here!” Whitelaw called his young son into his office, sat hardly drunk behind his desk, foot slipping and hitting the table, the sound making the younger flinch.  
♤♤♤♤

This was an old memory, a painful one at that.

♤♤♤♤  
“Father? I’m not allowed in your office, especially not on Tuesdays.” The young Darcy observed, not quite understanding, not quite on edge yet.  
“Well, Darcy, that’s because Mama used to come in on Tuesdays, and we made all the little names on the little graves at church. But Mama’s become weak and tired because Mama is a tired and stupid woman now, that’s why she calls you Ogden. So, because Mama is no fun anymore, we’re going to play together instead. Does that sound good?”  
Darcy nodded, obedient as ever, barley recoiling when Whitelaw started unknotting his tie and undoing his jacket buttons.  


Nor Whitelaw’s own.  


Nor his waistcoat.  


But at his shirt, the young Reid had to inquire-  
“Father, I know how to undress myself for punishments..”  
“This isn’t a punishment, darling, it’s something Daddy’s going to do for you and you’re going to enjoy.”  
“...Daddy?”  
Whitelaw twitched. “Yes, darling boy?”  
“Am I allowed to call you that on Tuesdays?”  
“...only when we’re alone or I say so. Okay? Good boy.”  
“Are you going to call me darling boy?”  
“Yes, darling. Whenever you call me Daddy.”  
♤♤♤♤

"Mama?" Darcy began quietly at dinner, baby Jean allowed to sit at the table this once a week, sat happily in the Nanny’s arms.  
“Yes?” She coughed and the doctor in the corner frowned a little, only for Whitelaw to wave him away as he went to approach the younger male.  
“May I see Katherine tomorrow please, Mama?”  
“Of course, baby. How about a picnic in the park, hm? Mama has things to do here and it isn’t polite to invite yourself into someone else’s home.”  
“Yes, Mama.”


	7. Clouds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's really hard to even this out, originally this was written in one long Google Doc. It still is being written in one long Google Doc.

Doesn’t it annoy you?” Katherine began with a huff as they left, Darcy having somehow been tasked with thanking people for their congratulations, and offered her his arm.  
She took it, automatic now, but suddenly resented that belonging sort of feeling it had.  
“Of course,” Darcy replied, taking the route through the park with nowhere to go for the day, having been told to spend it with Katherine. “But it’s better than being shipped off to marry some princess of a stranger, and I at least love you platonically.”  
“Platonically isn’t the point, don’t you see?”  
“Kitty, please just let this go ahead, don’t make things complicated…”  
“I’m not complicated, I’m trying to make things right!”  
“Are things really so wrong? Kitty, dear, please let’s not do this in public..”  
“Then please, do let us go to your house and we can argue it as loudly as we might like.”  
Darcy sighed audibly, Katherine now clinging to his arm so it almost hurt.  
“Of course, my darling, any…”

♤♤♤♤  
“...thing for you.”  
“Come here, sugar, get down on your kness and crawl… Good boy..” The sixth-form boy pulled Darcy (now almost limp and merely obedient a year into school ‘serving’ the sixth form) into his lap, the Reid curling up like a cat.  
Or, at least, trying to, but being so thoroughly coddled by the sixth form, who thought the twelve-year-old the absolute cutest thing on earth and didn’t allow him to even tuck his head down until he’d been passed to those who promised not to hurt him and overstimulated to the point where tears dribbled down his pale cheeks.  
“He even cries like an infant, isn’t he just the sweetest?”  
“Well I do hope you aren’t cons-”  
♤♤♤♤

“Darcy? Darcy, dear, is something wrong?” Darcy shook his head out of the clouds of the past.  
“...no, darling, nothing at all.” He promised, pecking her lips briefly and carefully adjusting her hat for her.  
“Are you sure? We don’t have to talk about it here…”  
“Don’t be ridiculous, we just had luncheon, it’s not important.”  
“Darcy… Why don’t you ever tell me anything?”  
“I tell you lots of things, darling, whatever do you mean?” He sounded like he might have laughed and so Katherine kept her mouth closed, simply knowing that something was wrong.


	8. Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short, but this one is kind of sweet? I think what starts to happen is that Katherine sees a side of Darcy rarer to her? Summaries are hard.

Two nights after that, it was decided that Darcy more than most likely wouldn’t hurt or undress Katherine even if they did sleep in the same house, and so Katherine was allowed to stay at the Reid’s to become accustomed to the building, and a maid brought clothes lent by Darcy’s mother. It seemed automatic, the way they gradually became closer until Katherine was cuddled into Darcy’s chest and his hands were wrapped one around her waist and the other gently stroking her hair until they fell asleep. (Though an overhanging spider may have noticed, Darcy’s ears did go bright red as their legs tangled together.)

Katherine woke up first. So why did she..?  
Oh. Darcy.  
As emotionless as her thoughts sounded, it took everything she had not to jump a metre away from him. She sighed audibly, sitting up and looking down for the soft whimpering sound… Turning his head away from the thoroughly soaked bedsheet, her breath caught on the branch of the moment.  
“Darc’...” She lay back close and held his face in her hands. She didn’t want to wake him, no, because she knew he barely slept at all, but she was also inclined to try and stop his crying. Pulling him close, she held him so he snuggled into her collar, gently stroking his hair and waiting for the way tears shook his slight frame to stop.

“...Mama?” His voice was choked and sore.


End file.
